Tag: t-max

Leica Summicron 50mm f2 DR Lens

When considering new glass my first reference point is Flickr. I ask myself ‘do the images with this lens have something special about them, regardless of the subject matter or talent of the photographer?’ My modern Leica Summicron 50f2 v5 lens is my least used 50mm as I tend to favour the Leica Noctilux 50f1 or Leica Summilux ASPH 50f1.4. The vintage Leica Summarit 50mm f1.5 creates beautiful images but flares easily so not for all occasions. I sold the Zeiss ZM Planar 50mm f2 and Zeiss ZM Sonnar 50mm f1.5 but I don’t think I fully appreciated the strengths of the Sonnar until after it was sold. With the 50f1 Noctilux normally living on digital Leica M9 body I wanted another 50mm lens to live on the Leica M3 film camera. I shortlisted either another Zeiss Sonnar 50f1.5 or a vintage Leica Summicron 50f2 DR. I did a quick reality check for the usefulness of the two 50mm lenses.

Zeiss ZM Sonnar 50f1.5 vs Leica Summicron 50f2 DR

Zeiss ZM Sonnar 50f1.5

Fully functional on all my Leica M camera bodies

Modern lens coating so less prone to flare

Zeiss ‘3D’ pop look wide open

Sharp wide open

50f1.5 is almost 1 stop brighter than 50f2 DR so more useful in low light
BUT

Close focus only 1m (the reason I sold my first ZM Sonnar lens)

Some copies of the lens are said to have focus shift issues

Leica Summicron 50f2 DR

Can close focus at 0.5m (0.478) when using goggles attachment

Sharp images wide open

Images have a signature ‘DR’ look that I dont see with the modern v5 Summicron lens
BUT

Lens only functions at a range of 1-4m on my Leica M9 and M8 (no close up or infinity focus ability)(*note lens is fully functional on my Leica M3 and M2)(and non-TTL M6)

Have to attach-detach goggles every time you want to go from close focus (0.478-0.88m) to 1m to infinity

I was keeping my mind open then on a recent trip to Munich Germany I visited the Leica Munich store to say hello and to see if they had a Leica Summicron 50f2 DR lens in stock to try. Sadly they didn’t have in but instead kindly recommended a shop that may have one. I found the shop and my luck was in! They had two 50mm DR lenses. One copy of the lens was cheaper so I tried that one first. It was not calibrated with my Leica M9 so I tried the second copy and asked the store if I could take it out the shop to try in the street. I left the Noctilux lens with them as a small deposit and they smiled and agreed. What struck me most was the sharpness wide open at f2 and the beautiful way it rendered out of focus areas. It took maybe five test photos and that was all I needed to see. Sold to the man that has enough lenses already but felt a need for one more!

I will sell my near mint modern Leica Summicron 50mm f2 v5 lens with box if anyone is looking buy one? I know many Leica shooters swear by them but I dont use it enough to keep.

Eager to try the Leica Summicron 50mm DR to its full potential I fitted it to my Leica M3 and shot half a roll of black and white Kodak T-Max 100 film which was already loaded in the camera. It was sunny and I felt I was missing out by not shooting colour during the golden hour. I had no 35mm colour film with me in Germany, only 120 Portra for the Mamiya 645 Super. Luckily I discovered a small camera shop when out exploring and when I asked for colour film they opened a box of the old Kodak Portra 400 VC that they must have had in stock for years. I’ve only ever used the new Kodak Portra so was interested to try the older 400 VC Portra. The model had cancelled for the afternoon shoot so I took the opportunity to set myself a challenge. Shoot a 36 exposure roll of film in one afternoon of anything and everything using the strengths of the Summicron 50 DR lens. To me this meant mostly shooting wide open at f2 with plenty of close ups and considering the out of focus areas for colour and bokeh. Results to follow!

Leica Summicron 50f2 DR vs Mamiya 645 / Mamiya RZ usage

My most used non Leica camera is currently the Mamiya 645 Super. What I enjoy most about the Mamiya 645 and even more so the Mamiya RZ 67 (and Rolleiflex SL66E) which use bellows, is the ability to focus close to my subject. To me that is one of the biggest weaknesses of the Leica M system, the 0.7m rangefinder closest focus distance. Now my Leica M3 will focus to 0.5m at f2 I am excited to try the Summicron 50 DR for my portrait work. Again, results to follow!

I feel the Leica Summicron 50f2 DR is the perfect lens for my Leica M3. The combination look beautiful together and function is on a par with form. If the combination looked pretty but wasnt capable of taking good images it would be worthless to me. I buy vintage cameras to use not to polish.

I hope to try the Leica Summicron 50f2 DR on both my Leica M9 and also Leica M3 this weekend so sample images coming soon.

I started getting into film photography during 2012 and I was using the classic black and white film, Ilford FP4+. For 2013 I tried Kodak T-Max film and liked this modern emulsion using T-grain for finer more grain free results for scanning. I used 35mm T-Max 100 in my Nikon FM and Voigtlander Bessa R3A rangefinder and 120 Kodak T-Max 400 (& 100) in my medium format cameras. I tried different formats – 6×4.5 (Contax 645), 6×6 (ARAX-CM (Kiev 88)), 6×7 (Mamiya RZ 67 Pro II) and 6×9 (Moskva-5 folding camera).

I develop my own black and white film using Xtol and/or Rodinal and often via stand development. It is very easy and allows you to develop the film to get the look you desire. This is not possible if you send film to a lab. You do not need a dark room, just a ‘Paterson tank’.

For colour film photography I use mostly Kodak Portra 400 for medium format and Kodak Portra 160 for 35mm. (See blog link below).

Here are some shots from 2013 to show the look obtainable from Kodak T-Max film.

Leica M9 CCD Sensor vs. Film
The filmic look of the Leica M9 CCD sensor really threatened my continued use of using 35mm black and white film. I stopped shooting film for over 3 months once the M9 arrived. I then found time to develop some film from the Voigtlander Bessa R3A that I shot before buying the M9. The results have fully restored my faith in film. I like the imperfections and arty feel that true film photography can capture. For 2014 I look forward to using my new Leica lenses on my Bessa R3A alongside my Leica M9. I also bought Mamiya RZ 645 film back, Mamiya RZ 6×6 film back and a Mamiya RZ Polaroid film back so the future for film looks bright for 2014!

Here is a photo using my 1950s 6×9 Moskva-5 Russian medium format folding film camera. A pleasing result as not easy to operate in terms of focusing due to the 2 viewfinders (espcially if try to recompose shot after focusing!). Taken using Kodak T-Max 100 film self developed in 1:1 Xtol & 1:100 Rodinal (stand developed) 30min 21 degrees.

More Moskva-5 photos to follow once negatives scanned.
Great compact camera that easily packs in a bag and that uses standard 120 medium format film. This camera is the largest format I currently shoot and the negatives are BIG! I also shoot 6×7, 6×6, 645 & 35m. I like the less common 6×9 format.

I picked up the camera from eBay in reasonable coondition. The key thing to look out for if buying one is to ensure the bellows have no light leaks. You can hold up to a bright light or shine a torch inside.

This is the first of a series of short posts to dispel some of the myths I have come across when teaching myself film photography and more specifically developing black and white film.

Question: How long will fixer keep for once it has been diluted?

(I will use Kodak T-max fixer as an example, diluted 1:4 with water, as this is the fixer I use). I’ve read many different answers to this question but the most common one appears to be dump the developer after each roll of film developed. I develop my own black and white film partly because it is more economical. If I was to dump my fixer after every roll of film home developing would soon prove expensive.

Answer: (Based on my own experience). I made up a diluted batch of 1.5L of diluted T-max fixer 4 months ago and have stored it in a dark cupboard in a clear soft drinks bottle. The bottle is not full to the top so air is in the bottle. Since making the batch of fixer I think I have developed roughly 25 rolls of B&W film (mostly 120 film but the occasional 135 also). I tend to leave the film in the fixer for a longer period than suggested to be safe (20 minutes) but I have not observed any problems so far.

Here is an example from the last roll of film developed:

Yulya, Ukraine with ARAX-CM medium format camera & Kodak T-max 400

*I have read that diluted fixer can be used for as long as six months but so far I have not reached that stage.

Conclusion: Even if you want to play it safe and make up a new batch of fixer every month it will still be much cheaper than making a new batch after each roll.

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Overview

Leica M cameras are my workhorse tools for all types of photography, both digital Leica cameras and Leica film cameras. I also shoot medium format and large format film and my appetite for analogue film photography is stronger than ever. The majority of the blog content is either Leica M camera related or film photography. I am a people photographer, models, fashion, lifestyle and wedding photography so most of my photography is portraits, experimenting with various cameras, lenses and films. The digital Leica M Typ 240 camera is my current do everything digital M camera but my favourite Leica camera is the Leica M3 film camera. I am also a huge fan of Hasselblad medium format film cameras and I use them a lot for client film photography shoots.

Mr Leica – About:

Hi, I started this blog page in March 2013 as my Flickr followers keep asking me to share some of my thoughts. To give you a brief background, my photography began in 2008 after getting a Panasonic Lumix TZ5 for Christmas. Today I have a lot of cameras and offer Photography Tuition to those who often get paid for their work. Besides teaching, I shoot as a Wedding Photographer and Model Photographer. I am 100% self taught so thought a blog would be a great way to share some of the things I have learnt so far. At the end of 2012 I started to develop a passion for Film Photography and in the summer of 2013 I bought my first Leica camera. I am now officially a Leica nut and use a digital Leica M240 and M8 plus Leica M3s, M2, M4-P and M6 film cameras for most of my photography. This includes Leica wedding photography, Leica lifestyle photography and Leica fashion / model photography. I also enjoy using medium format film cameras such as the amazing Hasselblad 501C 6×6 camera (my main medium format film camera), Fuji GF670, Rolleiflex SL66E, Mamiya RZ67 Pro2 to name a few and 4×5 large format film using a 1947 Pacemaker Speed Graphic and Sinar F2. In 2014 I started to teach portrait photography and lighting in London running monthly group photography workshops. Currently I teach photography on 1-2-1 basis providing 1-2-1 photography tuition (normally with a model) on location, often in London if on location and in the UK, from my Coventry UK studio or overseas such as New York, Zurich and Amsterdam.

Destination Leica Wedding Photographer

Leica Wedding Photographer offering desination Wedding Photography both in the UK and overseas. Natural documentary style wedding photography fused with stylised wedding portraits. As a Leica photographer I like to work quietly as an observer in the background and photograph by available light where possible. I use both digital and film Leica cameras but my passion is film photography.

Traditional Film Wedding Photographer UK

Film wedding photographer that still prefers film cameras in the digital era. I use 35mm Leica film cameras, medium format Hasselblad cameras and large format film cameras. If you appreciate film photography as much as I do then I would be delighted to cover your wedding. You may have already booked a wedding photographer but like the idea of a few special images shot on film? I would be happy to oblige!

Engagement Sessions

Engagement photography is very rewarding and I enjoy working with a couple to create natural yet stylised images using a aray of cameras to give you as set of unique looking images. E-sessions are invaluable for giving couples experience in front of the cameras ahead of their wedding day and it gives us a chance to get to know each other too.

Large Format Portrait Photographer

Large format camera portrait session that gives one of a kind photos. 4×5 format sheet film images and instant Polaroid photos. I fuse my model photography experience with my passion for film photography.

Leica Lifestyle Photographer

I have realised from how I direct my model shoots that I am in fact a lifestyle photographer. Posing often everyday people in everyday situations to look very natural. I have not yet branded myself as a lifestyle photographer but it may be a route I take in the future as this style comes very naturally to me and I find it easy to work closely with my clients to get the best from the images. If you are looking for new and creative photos for your social media site, blog, website or business then do get in touch.

Model Photographer

Studio based model photographer in Coventry specialising in black and white female portraiture using both digital and film cameras. I help new models build a model portfolio and regularly collaborate with model agencies and published models in the UK, Europe and the US.

UK Photography Workshops

I provide 1-2-1 photography tuition and lighting workshops from my Coventry studio and on location. I will help you to understand light and your camera to enhance your photography. Through 2014 I was running London photography workshops teaching small groups of photographers how to work with a professional model on location. Currently I focus on providing 1-2-1 tuition rather than teaching groups both here in the UK and overseas.

I hope you find the content as enjoyable to read as I find it is to document.